Review: Outlaw - Reaching Beyond Assiah

Introduction

Brazil is known for being the home of the Canarinha (their football team), the famous Rio Carnival parades, and the Copacabana, but it’s also home to some great black metal bands. This review is about one of them, named Outlaw, and their new release ‘Reaching Beyond Assiah’. I first came in contact with the band via a stream on the BMP YouTube channel in 2020. There premiered their second album “The Fire in My Tomb” and I loved it, the EP “Death Miasma” that followed in 2021 was very nice too and 2 years later, it is time for a review of their latest work which will be released on March 31st

The Album

The new album contains 7 new tracks with a runtime of almost 45 minutes.

Bliss of Soul
To Burn This World and Dissolve the Flesh
Beyond the Realms of God
The Unending Night
Everything That Becomes Nothing
The Serpent’s Chant
Reaching Beyond Assiah

The beautiful album art is also worth a mention. It looks glorious and tries to pull you into the vortex between her hands. When I was younger, and I bought tapes or CDs, I always checked the cover of a new release. I thought that if a band puts time and effort into a good-looking album art, the same must be true for their music. So far, that seems pretty accurate (although not all the time, of course).

For this release, it definitely counts. It’s all very polished (but not too much) and well put together. The drums sound like machine guns, the vocals are good (although not my favorite kind of black metal vocals, but that’s a personal preference), and there are some nice riffs to be heard

Track Highlights

‘Bliss of Soul’ starts at full speed right from the beginning, with the drums keeping the pace and some nice riffs in the mix. The album is also mixed properly, with every instrument where it should be. The lyrics aren’t available yet since the album won’t be released until March 31st, but they can be heard pretty well with these kinds of vocals.

‘To Burn This World and Dissolve the Flesh’ picks up where the previous track left off. Halfway through the song, there is a nice interlude and a very nice guitar solo that sets the perfect mood. You can’t sit still with music like this.

‘Beyond the Realms of God’ is one of the most atmospheric tracks on the album for me. It oozes atmosphere with nice drums and guitars. It’s also the only track for which the lyrics are available on their Bandcamp page. So, it gives me a glimpse of what the track is about.

Beyond the realms of god
The life struggles to survive
Absorbed by black holes and dissolved by the light
The creation goes from dust to dust and the black sun shines
Into the circle of life and death, death will become life

The drummer of Outlaw does a magnificent job on this album. He’s also the new drummer (since 2022) of the Finnish band Ondfødt.

I won’t describe all the tracks because I want to leave some room for your readers to experience it for themselves (that goes for all the reviews I write). However, I do want to mention the last track, ‘The Serpent’s Chant.’ This is one of the faster-paced songs on the album, and it just keeps going. It has a hint of black ‘n roll in it.

Conclusion

This album is well put together and deserves all the attention it gets. You can listen to the full album by playing the YouTube video below, which is currently the only source available, since the album won’t be released until March 31st.

BMZ Score: 8 / 10